"False Hope" is America

Recently, a black man was murdered by a white police officer. Nationwide anger and sadness spread like wildfire and there were protests on the streets. People called for murder charges to go out to these officers, and for no more innocent black men to be killed. Does this sound familiar? It feels weird to say that the death of Laquan McDonald happened six years ago, and weirder still to say I don’t remember half of the names of boys like Laquan who were wrongfully killed. There are too many to count, and the saddest part of all of this is that most people will eventually forget about George Floyd. It is a cruel cycle: a black man is killed, people riot, the officer is caught and reprimanded but not enough, and we move on. We yell and burn and attack, thinking this is the last one that will be killed, like police officers will say “Oh, he was the 150th? I guess I’ll stop being racist then.” We love to hope that the cycle will end, yet deep down nothing will ever be enough. The Great Gatsby, especially the last page, made me think of this. As Americans, we believe in the shiny, bright future. We believe that if we scream louder, burn brighter … And one fine morning––. It is this false hope that makes us Americans, our continual belief in the American Dream, whatever that means. In The Great Gatsby, the eponymous character believes in his reunion with Daisy Buchanan, a rekindling of a month-long relationship that happened five years before, and he is willing to do whatever it takes. The protagonist in Starfood believes that he is destined to be something great, no matter what it is, and will eventually leave the small convenience store his family owns. In The Crucible, John Hale believes he can calm the storm of hysteria brewing in the small pilgrim village of Salem, Massachusetts if he kills enough witches. In all of these examples, relentless American idealism gets the better of these characters, and the true mantra of America is unveiled. 

Gatsby, a man who perfectly encapsulates this sentiment of false hope, believes that he can reclaim the favor of a rich socialite named Daisy if he gains enough money. After Daisy accidentally strikes and kills a woman while driving Gatsby’s car, Jay is willing to take the fall for it, despite the immense danger this puts himself in. While Nick pleads with Jay to leave his house and hide for his own protection, he stubbornly refuses to leave Daisy’s side. “He wouldn’t consider it. He couldn’t possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do. He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free” (148). Gatsby is blinded with his infatuation with Daisy, and is too handicapped even to realize she is throwing him under the bus. When Gatsby is wrongfully shot and killed because of this, Nick begins to understand why Gatsby was willing to act so stupidly for a girl who was not at all worth it. He wasn’t acting stupid–Nick realizes–he was acting with the false hope of the American Dream. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us…Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning…So we beat on” (180). Gatsby stared in astonishment at that green light just as immigrants riding into Ellis Island. They gawked at the similarly hued Statue of Liberty, their heads filled with dreams of bright-burning futures. Jay dedicated and eventually gave his life to a woman who existed solely in his mind, and it was this dream that created the man who was so Great. And it was only a dream. 

Another example of someone frozen in the headlights of the American Dream is Dade, the protagonist in Starfood. He lives a quiet life with his family, who own and operate their own grocery store, yet his mind is almost exclusively elsewhere. He often sits on the roof of the building, looking at the stars and wondering when he will move out of his small town and become something great–not if… when. Dade recalls his mother fueling these dreams: “Newton and Galileo and Enrico Fermi were men of…fame, and as I stood there with the atomizer in my hands… she told me she knew in her heart I was going to be a man of…fame” (39). Dade looks up at the stars and sees himself, a beautiful yet disappointing dream for most. He thinks of himself as above this life as he sits atop the building, on the roof (probably a coincidence). Dade’s childish ambition to become a man of fame is very unlikely and his obsession with this notion––while forgivable because he is a kid––is sadly false.

A third man who falls victim to his own optimism is John Hale of The Crucible. John is tasked with handling the witchcraft crisis in Salem. He is plucky, intelligent, and confident he can step in, eliminate the witches, and save the town, and make it home for supper. “Here is all the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated” he declares. “Have no fear now – we shall find [the devil] out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!” (39). Something that John had not prepared for was that there were neither witches (in a literal sense) nor people named Satan. Instead lay a tangled mess of hysteria and fear. Similar to the modern situation of police brutality, both problems are near unsolvable. Hale cannot banish the sinners of Salem in the same way the police force cannot simply fire all of the racists. In reality, adjacent to dreams, life is infinitely complex and difficult, and nearly nothing has an answer or an ending. After the trials ceased, innocent lives had been taken and no sense of resolution was achieved as Abigail flees the town. In Columbus, the city burns and nothing but destruction will come of it. 

There is a Greek story of a man named Tantalus who was cursed to spend eternity in Hades. He stands in a puddle and under a fruit tree, yet cannot reach his neck low enough to drink or high enough to pluck a fruit. Forever just out of reach, no matter how hard he strains, Tantalus will never feast. This is America, a country where its citizens love to dream. They smile at the impossibly bright future, struggling to grasp at it, yet never far enough. But this is no reason to lose all hope completely. We should never stop fighting for what we believe in, because a world where we don't fight for a better future would be